Current News

OpenStax to provide ed tech companies with training to develop equitable courseware

OpenStax, Rice’s educational technology initiative, announced today that 13 companies have been selected to participate in the organization’s new equity in courseware training program. The training will help the participating companies learn about and develop educational technology platforms that provide better outcomes for all students, especially those from historically marginalized and underserved communities.

Why middle-class residents want to stay put after floodwaters recede

Flood disasters like Hurricane Harvey lead some people to move far from the places they had called home.

'Cool' kids in the cosmos may not be so unique

Rice University scientists show that "cool" stars like the sun share dynamic surface behaviors that influence their energetic and magnetic environments. Stellar magnetic activity is key to whether a given star can host planets that support life.

Rice expert: Using carbon is key to decarbonizing economy

Rice University carbon materials expert Matteo Pasquali is available to discuss ways to slash carbon dioxide emissions and rapidly decarbonize the global economy.

When many act as one, data-driven models can reveal key behaviors

Data science approaches can reveal subtle clues about the origins of such collective behaviors as aggregation of bacteria.

Sustainability alone cannot fix waste management woes, says expert

Both sustainability practices and a circular economy can help maximize the world’s resources, but the ideas are not interchangeable, according to a new brief from Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Padley named interim VP for IT, chief information officer

Paul Padley, a professor of physics and astronomy and director of the Bonner Nuclear Laboratory, has been named Rice’s interim vice president for information technology and chief information officer.

Iran’s water crisis is a warning for the US

HOUSTON – (Aug. 3, 2021) – Iran’s groundwater depletion and food security crisis is an issue of global importance reflecting not only climate change, but also a pattern of policy mismanagement, according to an expert from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

University message shares important updates to COVID-19 response policy

University message shares important updates to COVID-19 response policy

NSF grant kicks off Center for Adapting Flaws into Features

Rice University has won a Phase I National Science Foundation grant to establish the NSF Center for Adapting Flaws into Features to investigate nanoscale chemical phenomena and optimize the structures and electronic properties of materials.

How headless hydra feel, react to prodding

Researchers identify redundant neural networks in jellyfish-like, freshwater hydra. The work is a step toward modeling how internal states and external stimuli shape the behavior of an organism with a highly dynamic neural architecture.

Retired Rice economist Ken Wolpin receives prestigious Jacob Mincer Award

Ken Wolpin, the retired Lay Family Professor of Economics at Rice University and former department chair whose work revolutionized the field of labor economics, is this year's recipient of the Jacob Mincer Award for lifetime contributions to the discipline.

People, papers and presentations for Aug. 2, 2021

Rice Architecture alumnus Cohen Hudson '21 won a Texas Society of Architects/AIA 2021 Studio Award for his master's thesis project USPS+, a proposal for a new post office in San Antonio that leverages mass timber technologies "to expand the United States Postal Service's functions and define a system for the construction of a new type of post office."

Science and technology research is critical infrastructure, says Baker Institute

HOUSTON – (July 30, 2021) – Investments in science and technology research are vital to the United States’ economic growth and global leadership, according to a new report from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Dateline Rice for July 30, 2021